After reading about this salad challenge and realizing that I had missed the sign up date, I decided to make up my own, gluten-free salad challenge! I love salads and eat them almost daily. I do get in a rut, though, and this is just the thing to pull me out of that rut! 🙂 So, here is my challenge:

To eat at least 1 salad/day for 2 weeks. Each salad has to contain the following:

~ Dressing is optional, but I usually use at the very least EVOO & balsamic)

~ Bonus: Max. 1 handful or one serving of something else that I may not normally put in a salad or in the particular salad that I made. I have been known to use Fritos as GF croutons! So, things along those lines. Maybe I’ll give cereal a try? LOL!

I am going to commit to this for 2 full weeks, starting on Wednesday, April 15, 2009 (tax day, what better day?). Anyone else up for the Gluten-Free Salad Challenge? Just post here or shoot me an email. I’ll put together a little raffle for those who play along and enter your names into a contest and send out a GF Goody Bag! 🙂 For those who do play along for the GF Goody bag, make sure to document your salads. 😉

Woohoo!! I am excited! I love challenges & goals and I love salads. This will certainly inspire me to be more creative!

This post is going to have nothing to do with gluten or Celiac disease. This post is written so that I can hopefully win a $50 gift certificate to Children’s Place to help with Hannah’s summer wardrobe. The contest is being set up by The Children’s Place and Twitter Moms.

Hannah loves The Children’s Place and Grandma just bought her a brand new outfit there over Spring Break! Here is a picture of Hannah in her new sassy outfit:

This outfit actually has a cute jacket that goes with it, but since we were bowling, she was hot and took it off. 🙂

I went back & forth all week long about what dessert to make for Easter dinner. I originally was going to make a Snickerdoodle Cake, but I think I am saving that for this upcoming weekend (Jon’s 13th birthday). So, I tossed around several ideas….Lemon Bars, Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie, Spice Cake, Vanilla Cake or Lemon Bundt Cake. I opted for the Lemon Bundt Cake because is seems so “Springy” to me.

This recipe really couldn’t be any easier. I used Pamela’s Classic Vanilla Cake Mix (which, I have to share, my sister got on clearance at Kroger for $2.49!!!! Thanks KELLY!). There are several variations listed on the package and I chose the lemon one. All I had to add to the mix, aside from the water, oil & eggs, was 4 tsp. of lemon zest and 1.5 tsps. of pure lemon extract. Instead of using the recommended pan sizes (yes, that is the rule breaker in me coming out. 😉 ), I used a bundt pan. It worked perfectly! I baked at 325 degrees for about 35 minutes, keeping a very close eye on the cake.

I let the cake cool for 10 minutes or so and then placed my plate that I wanted to display the cake on upside down over the top of the bundt pan and gently flipped it over. Perfection!

Another Barney Butter give away!!! Oh, how I love my Barney Butter! Melon Cauliflower is hosting this give away. She is another huge BB fan and even had a run-in with airport security trying to get some home with her! Poor thing! I don’t blame you on wanting to avoid the shipping cost, though. Ouch! Anyway, I hope I win the 3 jars! Oh, how I have missed my Barney Butter! I can’t find it locally. Supposedly my Fresh Market is supposed to carry it, but they don’t. I even asked them if they do. Their web site says they do. My next step is asking Raisin Rack (okay, who am I kidding, I am going to BEG) to carry it.

Happy Easter to those that celebrate. We are going to be having Aaron’s parents over for a mid-day Easter dinner today. I am going to be preparing the meal. I will be making Herb Roasted Pork Tenderloin (or Perfect Pork Tenderloin as I called it in this post). I will be serving baked sweet potatoes & baked Idaho potatoes with a small toppings bar (brown sugar, cinnamon, butter, cheese, bacon, sour cream, salt, pepper, red hot, whatever you like) on the side. For veggies I will be making just simple steamed broccoli (though I would love oven-roasted broccoli or carrots, my oven will be very busy as it is) and a mixed greens salad with lots of toppings to choose from. We will have Buttermilk Cornbread made from Gluten-Free Pantry’s mix (usually I make mine from scratch, but these mixes were on clearance at Meijer, so I picked some up). For dessert, I am making a Lemon Bundt Cake with Lemon Icing. YUM! I will share the recipe/method for that later on this week. 🙂

The rest of our week appears unusually calm; dare I say that? Yes, normal schedules & school will be going on. Wait, I just remembered. Not so calm. LOL! Jon’s 13th birthday is Friday! YIKES! That makes me a little scared for a couple of reasons. First, I am getting old. Second, I will be the “official” mother of a teenager! He has been practicing the “teen attitude” for a while, though, so he has got it down, no worries. We will be having a small cook out on Saturday for family and Jon will have a couple of friends over the following Friday to spend the night.

Cheryl at GF Goodness is hosting this week’s GF Menu Swap. Thanks for hosting, Cheryl. The ingredient this week is flaxseed. I am just learning how to cook with flaxseed in my baking. I like the nutrition that it adds to baked goods & foods. Who can’t use more fiber in their diet? I have been adding about 1TBSP to my GF Oatmeal when I have that for breakfast to boost the fiber up a bit.

Also, don’t forget to check out Orgjunkie for lots more meal planning ideas.

Yesterday I made some banana bread to use up some bananas that were very ripe. There seems to be some kind of banana strike going on in my house. LOL!. The only difference, or change I made, in the recipe that I made yesterday was that I omitted the nuts (Jon can’t eat them with braces) and I used Carol’s Sorghum Mix (listed in this post) as my GF flour mix.

Jon had been asking for French Toast, so instead of using the sandwich bread, I thought that the banana bread would make an excellent French Toast. Here is what I did:

Banana Bread French Toast (1 serving)

1 egg, beaten with a smidgen of milk (I like the word smidgen, don’t you?)

Dash of vanilla

Dash of cinnamon

3 thinner slices of banana bread

Pam (spray your pan)

1. Pam your pan and heat over medium heat for a minute or 2, just to warm up.

2. Dip banana bread in egg mixture (don’t forget to stir in the vanilla & cinnamon….I didn’t make it real clear above that you need to do that. 😉 )

3. Place in pan and leave alone until the one side is browned up. Don’t mess with it a whole lot, it will fall apart if you don’t leave it alone. Once browned, flip and cook on the other side.

4. Arrange on plate and add your favorite toppings. Jon likes chocolate chips & syrup (He likes Aunt Jemima, and it is GF; I prefer real maple syrup). This would be good with sliced bananas, strawberries, powdered sugar….I could go on & on.

Jon declared this A.M.A.Z.I.N.G! He likes it better this way than the way I usually make it (with Pamela’s GF Sandwich Bread). He has asked for it again tomorrow AM! LOL! I think I might be able to make that happen for him.